Trust Fall
by mew-tsubaki
Summary: Drabble; set during the s16 finale. Kasie Hines usually doesn't have the same conversation twice in one day. Then again, she is friends with the likes of both Nicholas Torres and Eleanor Bishop.


**Trust Fall**

An NCIS oneshot

by mew-tsubaki

Note: The _NCIS_ characters belong to Donald P. Bellasario, not to me. I needed another take on that Torres and Kasie scene. c: Read, review, and enjoy! ***Note**: This contains _minor_ spoilers for season 16, episode 24, "Daughters."

\- ^-^3

This case…was a mess and a half, and Kasie Hines was tempted to try that infamous fuel her predecessor had sworn by. Gibbs could still conjure up a Caf-POW! on command, right? After all, the man was magic.

"Still waiting on some results I see," Bishop said from Kasie's right, breaking the relative quiet in the lab.

Any other time, Kasie might've been spooked from her slouch over her keyboard. But this case with Fornell's daughter had everyone including Fornell himself coming and going in her lab; it felt as if she had a revolving door. Kasie nodded her head and straightened up, more so to show that she'd heard Bishop.

"If you want to grab a catnap, I'd be happy to watch the screens for you."

But the lab tech shook her head and shot her friend a thankful smile instead. "Nah, I'm not that tired. It's just—this case is too close to home, you know? We're family here. Fornell's family, too. With Emily wrapped up in this—and now that dealer's _dead_…"

Bishop grimaced. "It does not bode well for her, either."

Kasie nodded again. "I imagine Gibbs is juggling his work with consoling Fornell. I overheard McGee earlier—Fornell threatening the podiatrist?" She frowned, but it was less a judgment of his actions and more in recall of her chat before with Torres regarding this case.

"I understand what Fornell's doing," Bishop remarked.

At first, the words "Well, yeah" came to the tip of her tongue, but Kasie paused, curious if Bishop would elaborate. Sure, Bishop was a sympathetic, even _empathetic_, person, but she didn't have children.

Bishop caught her eye and must've read the question there. "How he's reacting and not staying on the sidelines while someone he loves gets stuck worse and worse in this…_mire_," she finished with a gesture, as if she'd literally plucked the word from a dictionary.

"He isn't totally helping things, though."

"True. But—" The blonde exhaled slowly and glanced over her shoulder at the doorway before scooting closer to Kasie to talk more quietly. "I… A part of me is still angry at myself for thinking Torres could've been responsible for that murder when _he_ was drugged."

Well, that made sense; Torres and Bishop had had a mini Cold War in the office following that case. Kasie was glad they'd thawed, but… "I'm calling hindsight bias on that one," she declared. "But this is our job as investigators, Bishop. We can't see everyone as a victim. We have to see where the evidence leads us."

Bishop mustered an acquiescing grin, but she couldn't hold it. She turned to Kasie fully and furrowed her brow. "It doesn't make how I handled things right, Kasie. Nick and I have had a lot of trust issues this past year, and I—" The sound was tiny, but her voice caught nonetheless.

Kasie hugged her, tight and quick, and then held her at arm's length and made a point of locking eyes with Bishop. "Bish, girl, you think those won't ever go away?"

She pursed her lips in response.

"Remember that shootout you and Torres got into only a few weeks ago? You and he took turns giving McGee, Palmer, and me all the details after. Torres wouldn't let you down and let you get shot if he didn't give a damn about you and didn't trust you to have his back."

"…he didn't say exactly that."

"I'm critically reading between the lines."

Bishop shook her head and gently shook Kasie off at the same time. "Nick's like that because he's a good guy and a great agent," she corrected.

Kasie raised her eyebrows. "Nice appraisal. Sounds as if you trust him just fine."

Bishop didn't fight the tiny smile blooming on her face very hard, but she didn't mention that her mood had so obviously been lifted. Instead, she glanced at the nearer monitor. "If you don't need a break, then I think I'll head back upstairs and see where everyone else stands on their leads."

"Not a problem," the lab tech agreed, waving as the agent headed for the door. "By the way, Nick feels the same way, Ellie," she called after her.

Bishop's eyes widened, but she didn't stutter out her fluster; it showed in the glaring bright red of her cheeks.

"I mean about the caring and trust thing," Kasie rushed to clarify, catching her friend's embarrassment secondhand.

That helped, and, after a few nods, Bishop's movements weren't jerky and robotic. When she finally turned heel, there was even some pep in her step.

Alone again at last, Kasie returned to her ongoing search and settled in to wait a bit more…if she lasted that long, she thought with a morbid grin. "Rule number twelve…shoot. Gibbs is gonna kill me for pointing things out to them."

\- ^-^3

**OKAY. SO. I've been meaning to scream about **_***THAT***_** scene in the season finale for ages, bc at least it has been canonically confirmed that Ellick is A Thing™, even if only one-sided for now. But. My boy. Torres. He was such a deer caught in the headlights, and this episode was so sad and just—I'm still miffed with it, tbqh, but that scene was one of the three things I absolutely loved about it. So I wanted Kasie to experience a version of it with Bishop. And, where her chat with Torres was a little bit like talking to the kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar, her chat here with Bishop ended much more hopefully. I also have decided I kinda like writing Kasie. :D *lol***

**Thanks for reading, and please review! Check out my other **_**NCIS**_** fics if you liked this.**

**-mew-tsubaki :3c**


End file.
